


The Avenging Angel Flies Again

by alexcat



Series: After the World Ends [12]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, M/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Test Flight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-12-07 00:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18227723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/pseuds/alexcat
Summary: They get the ship off the ground.





	The Avenging Angel Flies Again

Tony, Nebula and Rocket had made a lot of headway on modifying an arc reactor to power their ship. Rhodey came in from the US to help out. Shuri was absorbed in figuring out where the lost ones were. Bruce spent most of his time with her. Thor and Natasha were still with Barton, but had signaled that they were on the way to Wakanda soon. Steve trained and ran, trained and ran. 

They all stayed very _busy_ , but everyone knew that no one really knew what to do. 

“It’s ready for a real testing,” Stark told the others. They had converted the reactor to a power source for the ship and installed it. They’d run tests on everything and all was in working order. Repairs had been made to the ship as well. Every circuit fired up and the ship ran like it was built for an arc reactor to fuel but they hadn’t flown it yet. At least it hadn’t blown up yet, either.

“I will take it up,” Nebula told them. “I came here in it.” 

Rocket spoke up. “Not by yourself, sister. I’m going wherever you go.” 

“I’ll go with them,” Steve spoke up. He need to do something, anything. He could run all day, but that didn’t actually fix anything. 

Stark nodded to him. “I think I’ll sit this one out. Space is not as fun as I thought it would be, but maybe it was the situation more than the space.” 

They began to prepare the ship for its final test. 

“What do we plan to do when we get to space?” Steve asked the others as they all sat at the communal dinner table that evening. 

“I will kill Thanos!” Nebula shouted and banged the table with her fist. 

“I’m with her!” Rocket joined in. 

“We need answers from him about our friends, about half the galaxy,” Steve argued. “Shuri has said that the ashes are not the ashes of our people. They are just ash. That means our people are out there somewhere. We need to find them, and we need Thanos alive until we do.” 

“Let’s get it flying before we fix the galaxy,” Tony reminded them all. 

Sufficiently scolded, Nebula and Steve went back to their food. Rocket simply smirked at them all and made a rude noise in his throat. 

Later in their bed, Tony rolled over to look at Steve. “I’m nervous about you going to space with those two.”

“It’s just a trial run.”

“You’re going to be the only thing keeping them from taking off after Thanos and I’m not sure I trust you not to go with them if they decide to do that.” 

Steve moved closer and kissed Tony. Tony wasn’t fooled at all. “We can do that in moment. Promise me you will come back after your test flight. We aren’t ready to go after Thanos yet. Promise me.”

“I promise. Now can we -”

Tony didn’t even let him finish his question until he pressed Steve back onto his pillow and began kissing him hungrily. After that, neither of them thought about flying in space for a long while.

 

*

Stephen Strange had not gotten used to the feeling of not feeling anything, though it seemed as if he’d been here forever. He never saw anyone but the Ancient One and he knew that she was not the real thing. He just didn’t know what she really was, maybe just a voice in his own head. 

He shouldn’t have been surprised when she showed up as he was thinking about her. 

“Your time here is growing short. Your keeper is dissatisfied with you and the others,” her voice said to him. 

“What others?” He had seen no one though he was sure that he was wasn’t exactly alone here, wherever here was. 

“All the souls it collected. This whole thing was an endeavor on its part to obtain new and better specimens for its collection.” 

“It?” Why was talking to her like pulling teeth? But then, she had always made him see the answers himself rather than telling him what he sought. 

“Thanos, the gauntlet. It was all a play to get to more specimens.” 

“What sort of specimens?” An awful idea was beginning to come to him. 

“Why, souls, of course. It collects souls and the better the soul, the happier it is.” 

“The soul stone?”

“Finally, we are getting somewhere.” 

“What can I do?”

“Nothing, really. You are dead, remember?” 

And she was gone. 

*

Everyone was ready the next morning for the test flight of the _Avenging Angel_ , as the little ship had been dubbed by Shuri.

Tony, Bruce and Rhodey checked all the systems while Steve, Nebula and Rocket got ready to fly her. Tony insisted they all wear something similar to spacesuits for the launch. 

“We never know if we might have something dangerous venting into the cockpit so I want the three of you protected.” Nebula and Rocket agreed, because Tony told them that they had no choice. He knew that if they didn’t wear suits, then Steve wouldn’t either. He wasn’t willing to lose Steve.

They all suited up and as they were about to board the little ship, Tony pulled Steve aside and lifted his helmet from his head. In front of everyone, much to Steve’s embarrassment, Tony kissed him, a long lingering kiss that might or might not have had a little groping included as well. 

Rocket was making choking sounds as Rhodey and Bruce stared, openmouthed. Nebula looked away, while Shuri cheered aloud. 

Steve pulled away. “I, uh, gotta go.” He pulled on his helmet and they boarded the ship. 

Rocket commented that a ship blasting off into space was a common occurrence. 

“Not here. Remember, we have not completely mastered space flight yet,” Tony reminded him as he and Rhodey closed the doors to the ship. 

Within half an hour, the _Avenging Angel_ was in space and Rocket was putting her through her paces. Everything was working fine. The arc reactor fuel source was performing perfectly. Nebula even test fired the energy weapons a few times for fun. 

Steve loved the flight. He stayed in his seat, until Rocket talked him into guiding the ship on an orbit around the planet.

“Come on. You know you want to,” Rocket cajoled him. He switched the controls over to Steve’s position. “Fly the ship, Captain!” 

The controls were sensitive and Steve almost dumped his companions on the floor once or twice. 

“Ease up! If I vomit, it’ll be on you, dude,” Rocket yelled as Steve began to get the hang of it and smoothed their flight out. 

Nebula took her turn, too, though she already knew how to fly the ship. 

“Thanks for bringing Tony back to me,” he told her. 

“You really should branch out, Rogers,” she told him. “I still think you could have the god if you wanted him.” 

Steve laughed and thought he actually saw Nebula smile. 

They landed an hour later. 

Tony hugged Steve as soon as he was off the ship, glad to have him back safe and in one piece. 

* 

The little stone winked and shone, unnoticed by Thanos. 

They were getting closer. It could feel it.


End file.
